


Hungry Ghosts

by Maesonry



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Blood and Violence, Developing Relationship, Drama, Eventual Happy Ending, F/M, Fluff, Gender-Neutral Pronouns, Gender-neutral Reader, Heavy Angst, Horror, Hurt/Comfort, I give you a milkshake and then punch you, Ima be real with you Chief this is probably Ozai’s fault, M/M, Non-Graphic Violence, POV Second Person, Post-Canon, Reader-Insert, Some Humor, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Zombie Apocalypse, Zuko (Avatar) Deserved Better, but like battery acid fluff, reader: what’s up I’m 17 and I have depression
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-18
Updated: 2019-04-25
Packaged: 2020-01-15 18:40:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,692
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18504784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maesonry/pseuds/Maesonry
Summary: Hungry ghosts: the remnants of the dead, who are afflicted with a terrible hungerWhen you went to the Fire Nation Capital, you left your family and said, “I promise I’ll come back.”Twenty days later, trapped in a city of monsters, you don’t think you’ll be coming back.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [blank_Ace](https://archiveofourown.org/users/blank_Ace/gifts).



> This is just entirely self indulgent. I do this for basically every piece of media, I think, “what if... zombies.” This is definitely inspired by my favorite show of all time, Kingdom (feudal Korea meets zombies) and I decided to post it cause why not
> 
> There might be more chapters after these two. Or maybe not. Big shrug

It’s dawn. You can tell, by the way the light filters in through the boarded up windows, and by the distant sound of bodies entering the water. With closed eyes, you exhale, and count the splashes like a rooster’s crows. 

Today, there’s at least ten. Silence falls, and you can picture the way the water ripples with displacement, before going eerily still too. The waterbenders have gone back to sleep.

There’s the sound of groans, and bones creaking, and- well, there won’t be much longer until the firebenders wake up. There’s so many. They’ll start crawling out at any minute- from under buildings and caves and anywhere dark enough to hide them. 

But you like dawn. It’s the only time that you ever really have a moment of quiet. For at least a few minutes, there are no firebenders or waterbenders wandering around. A few earthbenders, maybe, but not many.

Just you and the Capital City. 

And the zombies.

Yet another day. You’ve been marking them down, just to keep busy, and as you roll out of bed you etch another notch into the wood with a piece of sharpened stone. Twenty tally marks stare impassively back.

There’s always work to do, though, so you don’t linger. Instead, you start by doing your stretches in front of the window; looking out over the city and getting your morning routine done at the same time. Cataloguing anything new. 

Three days ago, the Jingashi outpost had fallen. There’s still a little smoke from their building, drifting up into the air. Sometimes, it smells of burnt flesh, and you count yourself lucky that it doesn’t today. But the smell is the least of your concerns, really. Because they were the closest outpost to you- after the Dongnae outpost fell. And now that they’re gone, you’ll have to do trading elsewhere. So you cast your eyes to the horizon, near the palace, and stare at the faint outline of the Kai outpost. 

You’ve only been there once. A few days after the start of this. One of the members of the royal family was there, actually. Leading the people. Zuko, the new Firelord. You still remember him...

Another round of groans catches your attention, and the thought slips away from you, your eyes directed down. Like clockwork, you watch the firebenders claw their way out from under the decks of buildings, or from wells, or whatever dark and empty place they had. You hate the sound of their bones cracking with the movements.

But it’s as good of an alarm as any. Time for you to get on with your day. Like a rooster, but… worse. 

You take your time as you get dressed. First goes the cut tunic, then the cropped pants, the wrap to keep down any loose ends, the former fire nation soldier gauntlets on your arms. You tie your short hair back and debate whether or not you want to wear shoes. Shoes wins in the end. So those go on too, liberated from an already raided armory, and then you’re ready. There’s a bag waiting for you by the window, and you strap it tightly to yourself, mutter something about how you wish you had your old one, and you look out. Kai outpost is a hot (ha) minute away, but mostly, the rooftops are close enough that you can use those for most of the trip. 

And you won’t need to go anywhere near the river. Or the main road. 

Careful, you slide down the rope of the window, touching down onto the second story roof of your building. You do another check to make sure you’re clear. Then, as silently as you can manage, you leap. Right onto the closest roof. The tiles clank underfoot, but there’s nothing. You’re safe.

Just need to repeat that for the rest of the city. When you’re far enough away, you can make more noise, go faster. It sure as hell beats walking on the street, too.

The only danger is if you hit a hollow spot and fall in. But you won’t. You’re better than the others. So that’s what you tell yourself as you start running, at least, because it’s easier that way, instead of the idea that one false step can kill you.

And it’s a nice day outside. Aside from the zombies, and the desolate, echoing, gnawing silence- when it isn’t eaten by moans- that define this place now. The Kai outpost is a few blocks away from the Palace, and by extension, the main road, and you can’t help but try to catch glances of that street over the tops of buildings. It’s hard to ignore it, since it’s the only way out of this place. 

Whoever built this city in the middle of a caldera had a bad sense of humor, one you don’t find even remotely funny now. Even an earthbender like you can’t bend your way out of it. Any escape attempts have to go through the main entrance, which is connected to the main road, and last you checked, the entrance was filled to the brim with zombies. And so was the main street.

This city is a deathtrap. And you’re caught right in it.

But then you catch sight of the Kai outpost- the building, still as pristine as you remember it from those first days, and you feel relieved, a tiny breath of air that leaves in a huff. It reminds you a little of Dongnae.

For your sake and for theirs, you hope that’s the only similarity to Dongnae. 

You slow your approach as you get near the building. It smells like embers here, something to mask the scent of death. A bad feeling curdles in your chest- a realy, really bad feeling, and you make yourself quiet as you hop off the ledge of a roof and land softly on the ground. 

Where are the lookouts? 

You tilt your head up at the barricade, searching, but you find nothing. You hear no one. And you’re not foolish enough to start shouting for them, so you soundlessly hiss, and make to climb up. There’s still a rope, at least. You haul yourself up with a heave and a grunt, and when you’re on solid ground and can look at the inside of the outpost, your heart sinks.

It’s empty. It’s destroyed. It’s covered in blood. Blood, in arcs and puddles and clawing handprints, desperate to get away. You look over, and you can see that the back gate has been destroyed, which answers the question of how, at least. Your face is caught somewhere between a frown and a grimace, so you just make your mouth a thin line, and push those feelings away to deal with later.

Maybe someone is still alive.

The blood looks fresh. Well, fresh enough. Last night, at the latest, or the earliest hours of the morning. You shift to search mode, and you survey the area even more intensely than before. There’s a few dark shapes, dotted around, but none are moving, and only a few are still in one piece. If there’s something waiting, it’s waiting out of view. 

You hop down.

The dirt muffles your landing, and you look up, ears catching the faintest sounds of gargled gasps of air. It’s coming from the corner. And- there, the farthest corner of the courtyard, a figure turns, a bone cracking sound and wheezing keen. Their hair is matted, they’re covered in dirt, and their eyes are empty as they start to stumble. You don’t step back. 

When you had to do this the first time, you got sick for hours. Now, it’s easy to say that you’re used to it, but you’re not, not really. You’re just faster. Quick. Efficient. You spread your stance, and when the stumble starts to turn into a run, you stomp your foot and wrench your left hand up. A jagged, solid shard of earth suddenly shoots out from the ground, impaling upwards and- decapitating in a single motion. 

You exhale as you release the pillar, and the body drops, marionette with its strings cut.  
It never gets any easier.

So you ignore it. You turn around, and make sure there’s no stragglers left- there’s not- and resume your search. In the terrible silence, you can’t help but think of Zuko. Over the past weeks, you’ve done a lot of that- the thinking, and the thinking of Zuko. You think that you would’ve been friends, before this. He was nice. And awkward. You were both only seventeen, stuck in this mess, and it was nice to have someone to relate to.

You hope he’s not among the corpses, but that’s a slim luck. And it’s foolish of you to hope.

Silly. You never should get attached to anyone. Then it’s Dongnae all over again.

So that vicious little part of yourself hopes that you find Zuko among the corpses, just so you can prove yourself right. Validate your coldness. That you keep yourself safe that way, and that it’s right.

It’s a small part, though. And you don’t really put much stakes in hope these days.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don’t worry, uhhHh Iroh and Azula and the Gaang are all like. Somewhere else and they’re fine lmao
> 
> I love u uncle Iroh


	2. Chapter 2

Exploring the remains of the Kai outpost isn’t fun. And it’s gruesome business, too, just like Dongae. Except here, at least it’s not people you know. You don’t find Zuko amongst the bodies you pick through. You _do_ find three more zombies, but you deal with them before you can think about it.

And then you’re just left in this outpost, alone. Scraps of papers that slowly drift down. There are food and supplies here, and you never know what the proper protocol is for this, if you should try to bury them or if you should just leave without taking anything. 

Hunger always wins in the end, just like the zombies. You eye the bundles of dried meats, and then you’re placing them into your bag, whispering quiet apologies as you pick through the carnage for whatever you can carry. 

But then you pick up what must have been a wooden toy, for a child, and you hold it up, a little bit of blood dripping off the side, contrast with the simple face of the smiling polar bear dog. 

And suddenly you’re setting the toy back down, and trying to hold in the screams. They’re not fearful screams. Just angry. Just screams, but you can’t scream, you can’t even _talk_ , you’ve gone two weeks without hearing your own voice and you don’t know how much longer you can keep this up. How long until you crack? How long until you walk down to the river, and just let the waterbenders grab you? You’re only seventeen years old, and you miss your family, you miss Yuanling, you don’t even know if they’re still alive and you miss Dongnae and you miss Zuko and you want to scream.

(You told them not to go near the water. But they didn’t listen to you.)

(It doesn’t matter now.)

You turn to leave. There’s still supplies left, but you’ll have to make more trips to grab them. Right now, there’s nothing left but to go back home- and your lips twist at the idea that that’s home now, that’s home- and continue on.

But then- you hear the sounds of someone firebending.

Your eyes shoot open. It’s not the monsters, because the firebending doesn’t just cut off after a moment. It must be a person. Someone-

Someone’s alive.

Someone’s alive! 

You’re running towards it before you can hesitate. It’s from beyond the destroyed back gate, and you push past the shattered barricade, shimmying past shards of splintered wood and then stumbling out into the street. The sounds are coming from the left. So you go left, and you’re running, and you aren’t even paying attention to how much noise you might be making because whoever that is, they’re making much more.

You turn the corner. It’s a flat area, near the river but not quite. You hadn’t realized you were this close to water.

But that’s not what you’re paying attention to. No, your eyes are caught on the person firebending, because no only are they firebending, but they’re screaming. Just like you had wanted to earlier. 

Air leaves your lungs in a garbled hush, because that’s not just some random firebender; that’s Zuko. Zuko, kicking fireballs into the air, and shouting, and slowly, slowly being surrounded by a growing number of zombies.

He’s going to get himself killed. Maybe this is it, maybe he’s finally cracked. He couldn’t hold in the screams anymore, and now he’s here, at the bank of a lake or a river, and he’s going to die.

But you’ve got a possessive streak a mile long, and you won’t let him die.

“Come on! Come and take it!” Zuko is screaming, pushing back a wave of zombies with a burst of flame. It’s not doing much, though. They’re already dead, they can’t get any more dead than before. So he roars again, and one zombie gets a step too close, and that should’ve been it.

Had you not brought your two fists down, then up, and shot Zuko into the air on a platform of earth. Shocked is one word to describe his expression. But just as that’s an understatement, upset would be a word to describe yours. You stomp both feet and extend your arms, and the ground fractures, fissures opening up and swallowing half of the horde whole. You bring your arms back in and a horrible, extended crunch reverbs, and then the ground seeps with red.

You don’t have enough energy to do that again, and there’s still so many, so many more coming, that you decide that it’s time to go. You launch yourself up to Zuko’s level and point to the rooftops. 

“We need to go,” the first words you’ve said in what seems like forever. Zuko only blinks.

“I- I can’t,” and he turns away, there’s shame on his face, like he’s been crying with his anger, “I failed these people-!”

You smile in a way that isn’t really a smile, because you can definitely understand that part.

“You can’t save them if you’re dead,” you say instead. You grab Zuko’s hand, because now he’s stuck in a morose silence, and your voice is starting to get gravely. That’s okay. You step back, then one motion, cut and launch half of the pillar, letting it fall to make a makeshift bridge to a nearby roof. Then you’re yanking Zuko along, and he follows.

You’re both sprinting across the rooftops. You haven’t let go of Zuko’s hand, but he hasn’t tried to take it back either. And you’re both covered in blood, just a little. That’s normal here. You wish you hadn’t started to think of that as normal, but it just is.

“Where are we going?” Zuko asks, as you both tumble down a slanted ledge, and you wonder.

“Dongnae.”

Zuko pulls another face, “Dongnae fell weeks ago.”

“It did,” and what else can you say? You add, voice rough with disuse and dust, “I’m the only one left.”

Just like Zuko is all that’s left of the Kai outpost.

Two little kids playing at being soldier, that’s what you both are. And you’re somehow still alive, so you must be doing something right.

Your home comes into view, tall and quiet and as good as you’re going to get, so you point at the rope hanging from the window, and you say, “Hurry.”

Zuko climbs up as you look around to see if you’ve been noticed. You’d lost the majority of the zombies halfway through, and that’ll only make scavenging harder in the future, but you’re alive. And it doesn’t seem like there’s anyone around. You grab the rope and clamber up after Zuko, then, just like always, you take the rope up too, and close the window. 

You turn to Zuko.

The room feels inadequate, for some reason, now that he’s looking at it. It’s small, and it’s a little hot, and yet above all else, it’s safe. There’s a little stove for making tea, and you awkwardly gesture towards it.

“Tea?”

But Zuko makes an incredibly sad face, and says, “No, thank you.”

And then you’re both in the silence once more.

As you unpack the supplies from Kai, you wonder what you should say. You want to ask what happened, but you already have an idea- an ambush at night, Zuko must have been gone. And you want to ask him if he knows what’s happened to the Earth Kingdom, if the monsters are there too, if nowhere is safe. You want to ask if he remembers you.

Instead, you put away one of the packets of dried meat, and you say, “The other survivors here said they knew about a boat that could get us off the island.”

Because that had been the plan, once. Get survivors together, then get on the boat, and leave for the Souther Air Temple. They didn’t... they didn’t get very far. It doesn’t matter now.

Zuko looks at you.

“You- you think we could do it?”

You shrug. He seems to accept that. The silence is back, but it’s more comfortable, and you’re rummaging around for the second bedroll when Zuko speaks again.

“I remember you from when you first visited,” he says. His voice is quiet, as he thinks, and there’s embarrassment to his admission, “When they said Dongnae was gone, I was… upset. I liked you.”

You smile, and drop the bedroll onto his lap. You don’t know how to tell him that you remembered his face and his smile for weeks, and that you tried to think he was better off dead so you wouldn’t have to cry, but that’s a lot of words. You don’t feel like you have many words left, so you just say, “You too.”

And Zuko smiles with you.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have... some more chapters of this written. And they have some cute stuff too. And also some sad stuff
> 
> And then I’m gonna get around to explaining how this place got messed up


	3. Chapter 3

Zuko’s been staying with you the past day. And he’s probably going to stay with you for a while. You sleep on bedrolls a few inches apart, and you wake to the sound of water splashing and bones cracking, and in the morning, you go over your list of supplies. 

With two people, everything is going to last less. You don’t want to tell this to Zuko, but honesty is good, so you decide to state it bluntly.

“We’re going to need to get food soon,” you tell him, and you throw him a packet of dried meat, while you munch on some preserved fruit, then you gesture somewhere outside with your spoon, “And water.”

The water is always the hardest part.

Zuko chews his food with a furrow in his brow, obviously thinking, and you smile a little a kick him with your leg. Lightly. It gets his attention, and you set down the fruit,

“I’ll go out today.”

He looks less than enthusiastic at your statement. 

“I don’t want to impose on you-”

You snort. He wouldn’t ever impose on you just by existing, you want to say, but the way your eyes grin says that enough. It’s been a while since you’ve smiled.

“Not going far. Just to Dongnae, to grab a map.”

The map is two buildings away, in old Dongae. Before you had to flee here. You’ve been avoiding going back, but, well. You know you’d have to do it eventually. To grab the plans, and the maps, and some new clothes. 

But before, you hadn’t really had hope that you’d live any longer than a few days. Now you have Zuko, and he’s enough to keep you grounded. From the way the lines of stress around his eyes have evened out, you think he feels the same about you. And that makes you feel a little like a giggling farmhand again, like you’re at your parent’s farm and you’re trying to impress one of the other kids with a hole you made. In your defense, it was a very big hole. And they seemed suitably impressed.

Hopefully what you grab from Dongnae will impress Zuko even more.

Zuko throws a piece of dried meat at you. You snatch it as it bounces off your cheek, and then you throw it right back at him, a quiet laugh as it lands in his hair. 

Later, as you prepare to leave, you want to promise that you’ll be back. But, you can’t promise that. So you say, “You can watch me,” and point to the building you’ll be going to. Zuko nods. There’s an awkward silence, and you adjust your bag, and Zuko glances out the window, then.

“Stay safe-” “Be careful-”

And then you both clamp your mouths shut, and have red faces that only grow with the silence once more. Your cheeks are slightly puffed out with your wide eyes, and Zuko has the appearance of a turtleduck.

You settle for reaching out and squeezing his hand instead of trying to speak again.

Then you hop out the window, and carefully slide down. 

Master of avoiding awkward conversations, you are.

Old Dongnae is only a hop, skip, and a jump away, and you land on the roof of it without much fanfare. It’s still the same as you left it. You turn back to Zuko, and give him a little wave, which he returns. Then, you turn away and unwedge the window, and with a deep breath, you drop in.

It’s not dark inside, but it isn’t bright. It smells musty, and moldy, and there’s that faint undertone of death. Cloying, almost sickly sweet. And then there’s the pungent, rank odor that overtakes it after a moment. The bodies here have been fermenting in the heat, too, for weeks now, and you just know that the smell won’t leave your clothes and skin for days. It’s like the manure you used to use on the farm, but worse. Worse than any skunkbear can be.

You cover your mouth, but it doesn’t do much. You focus on counting instead, as you make your through the room. The maps and plans should still be in the storage room, and whatever food that wasn’t fresh should still be salvageable. 

So you cross into the courtyard.

And then you immediately dive to the left. The swipe grazes your arm, but it’s covered, you’re fine, and you take the motion in a roll and jump up and back as you shift into a combat stance.

It’s a zombie. Of course it is. You’d hadn’t really thought about it, when you’d left, but...

Well. There Hana is. Or, not really Hana. Hana wasn’t ever covered in blood like this, or growling at you, or stuck in a weird stage of not alive but not dead. She stumbles for you a little. You take a step back.

Coward. Coward. You’re a coward, and this is why you never wanted to come back here. You’d told them not to go in the river. And then when most of them were ~~drowned and dead and eaten~~ gone, you and the others ran back here, but someone must have gotten bit and then-

Chaos and screaming and you running away, never looking back.

Hana keeps stepping forward. You remember her smile. She had beautiful black hair, and told terrible jokes, and she only drank jasmine tea and she had a crush on Bako and now, now she’s dead and now she wants to rip your heart out and eat it whole.

Are you crying? Maybe. Who knows. You shift your arms and then, three successive motions, you create little spikes from the earth, ones that encase her feet and legs and hold her still. 

You don’t put your arms down. But you don’t create the final spike to finish the job. You just stare at her. Saliva flies from her mouth, jaw half destroyed, and she’s screaming, seething, eyes white and dried blood caked to her chest. Is this what Zuko saw, when he came back to his outpost? Is this why he cracked? You understand, and you just want to sit down and join them, for all of a terrible moment.

But you won’t break. You won’t crack.

A deep breath, then you stomp your foot, and raise your hands, and the execution is swift and quiet.

Except for the little quakes of your chest and the tears that drop to the ground, one, two, three, and you pull yourself back together with paper string.

You didn’t really know Hana that well anyway. 

The maps and plans are exactly where they were left. You stuff them into your bag with vigor, making sure not to crinkle them too much, and then, just as you hoped, the storage room is still mostly filled. Dried goods and flour and whatever else you have. You load up with as much as you can carry, and then a little more, and the weight is reassuring along your back. 

There’s just one thing left to grab.

The packet of melon candy is slipped into an inner pocket. Your smile is small, hidden, and then you’re leaving the room, back into the courtyard, and lifting yourself out. Earthbending is never quiet, not unless you’re as slow as a turtlelion, and you’ve been practicing patience for weeks now. Slow, quiet. The subtle rumble of rocks moving as you are lifted from a pillar of earth, onto the roof, but you smile in success nonetheless and lower the pillar back down.

Zuko waves as you approach home again. You wave back, and start the slow climb up the rope, and when you finally reach the top you’re so eager to just finally be home that you-

Clonk heads right with him.

You both hiss in pain, rolling on the floor a little, and you don’t even think about it when you put a hand on his forehead to ask if he’s ok. He’s really warm. 

You pull your hand back a little too quickly, and then drop your bag onto the floor, opening it up and beginning to explain what you got. You realize, belatedly, that you’ve dropped the candy bag onto the floor. Right next to Zuko. Who picks it up, confused for a moment, and then tentatively surprised.

Your mouth feels like wet flour.

“I got those. For you.”

Zuko blinks at that. You wonder when the last time he received a gift without any strings attached was. Then you just feel uncomfortable, because he’s the Firelord, you’re a farmer from the Earth Kingdom, what are you even thinking giving him a dumb gift like that-

Zuko grabs your hand. He’s holding your hand. The silence is just that, silence, and you’re both looking at one another, neither person exactly sure what to say. Zuko is warm, though. That’s nice. You wonder if all firebenders are this warm.

“This is… really nice,” Zuko states.

He doesn’t let go of your hand. You just nod.

And later on, when it turns to night, and all the firebenders go to sleep and the waterbenders crawl out, you and Zuko share the packet of candy and go over the boat plans, until you both slump to sleep on the other.


	4. Chapter 4

You keep having dreams about Ba Sing Se. About Gaoling, and Yuanling. You keep dreaming that this is all some terrible nightmare, and you wake up, and you’re still on your parent’s farm. That you never met Zuko and never will. 

When you wake up, you’re not sure if they’re good dreams or not.

It’s been a few days since Zuko’s joined you. You like having him around. The company is nice, and you feel safer, knowing there’s someone else here. The first day Zuko left to go scavenging on his own, you felt like you were going to die. And right after, you decided that it might be better to do the scavenging runs together. He agreed.

You’re waking up slowly today. It’s warm, is your first thought, as you exhale sleepily and shift your head. Warm and soft. And then you inhale curiously, and there’s the smell of dirt mixed with ash, that makes your eyes open with tired realization. Oh. It’s Zuko. You’ve got your arms wrapped around him, like a stuffed animal, and he has an arm thrown over you.

It’s definitely comfortable. And embarrassing.

A tiny little grin is on your face, and you manage to wiggle a hand free. A hand which you position over Zuko’s arm, then begin to lightly tap in a few places, followed by your frightened m whisper of, “Zuko- there’s a spider on your arm.”

Zuko jolts awake and flinches away. You yank your hand back and laugh, a little mean, and when he realizes what you did he doesn’t even hesitate as he launches himself at you. 

“Hey!” and then you’re both grappling with each other, careful not to be loud, but still kicking chairs and walls and throwing each other over the other. Zuko is surprisingly agile.

“Submit!”

“I’d rather die!”

Zuko flips you like an omlette, and then you’re on your back, and before you can react at all, he has both your hands held down and a viciously victorious expression on his face. You mutter a few curses as you kick your legs around, but nothing, and so you hiss and say, “Uncle, uncle!”

He lets you go faster than air can come back into your lungs. His eyes are suddenly small, mouth twisting into a frown, and you don’t even know what you did wrong but you know you did something. Was- it must have been what you said. Uncle? Was that it?

You sit up on the floor.

“Zuko, I’m sorry-” you whisper, voice as gravelly as always, “I didn’t- I didn’t know. I’m sorry.”

Maybe his uncle died. You’re so insensitive.

“No, no,” but Zuko waves you off, and sighs, leaning down to rest his head on his legs, “I. My uncle, he’s in Ba Sing Se right now with my sister. I just… haven’t thought about him in a while.”

You haven’t thought of your parents for weeks now.

Zuko exhales and runs a weary hand through his hair, “He must think I’m dead, huh?”

Well. Yes, probaby. You nod and shrug a little, and you have to add something, so you say, “My parent’s probably think I’m dead too.”

Just two friends, whose family thinks they’re dead. No, I’m not dead, I just feel like I am.

You scooch closer to Zuko, feeling awkward. He looks upset still. You stare at him for a few minutes while he works through it.

“My father… I asked him about what was happening. During the first days of this.”

That gets your attention. You tilt your head, waiting for him to continue, because really, no one knows how this happened. Or why. There’s rumors, of course, but there’s always rumors. 

“Oh?”

Zuko laughs, and it’s not happy, “He told me it was a curse. Because _I_ was Firelord. He said it was all my fault.”

“It’s not.”

“But what if it is?”

You’re shoulder to shoulder with him now, and your chest rumbles when you talk, with the blossoming bruise on your cheek, “Bako used to swear he saw the first sick person coming off a boat, in the harbor. An Earth Kingdom ship.”

And Hana claimed it came from the heart of the caldera, and Ellie said it was a curse dead air nomads, and on and on.

Zuko gives you a look. It’s a considering look, “And what do you think?”

You chew on the question for a minute. Zuko inches closer, until there’s not even shoulder space left, it’s just warm on cool. Your words are weighty.

“I think that some people in the Earth Kingdom hated Ozai. And they wanted to get back at him. And I think maybe, maybe Bako might have been a little right.”

You don’t want to tell him that half your village would’ve killed you if they found out where you were going. You don’t want to tell him that even your father had given you _a look_ , and you can’t even think how angry they must be now, now that you’re probably dead and it’s obviously the Fire Nation’s fault.

You think Zuko knows, though. He’s smarter than he looks. And right now, he just looks so tired. 

“It’s hard, dealing with family burdens,” you whisper, Zuko leaning on you a little, “Everyone expects you do deal with it, but you don’t know how,” and you shift, till you’re both leaning on each other, just bone tired, “I was the first earthbender in my family since my grandfather. Everyone loved him. He was, such a great farmer, and he could move mountains and till entire fields and whatever else people could come up with that day,” your voice tinges with sarcasm, and it’s quiet, sad, “People kept expecting that of me. And I couldn’t take it. I didn’t… I didn’t want that. But you don’t have that kind of choice, huh?”

He doesn’t answer. You don’t think he has to. You both just sit there, staring out the window, and wondering what your families must think of you now.


	5. Chapter 5

You have a nightmare that night, and even though you can’t remember it when you wake up, you feel like you can. And it feels awful. 

You jolt awake in the darkness. You try to close your eyes to calm down, but it’s horrible, you don’t even want to close your eyes to sleep, and the monsters outside are howling wordless cries of hunger and despair. You hear someone scream. 

People always think it’s safer at night. Less zombies, less trouble. But there’s still the nonbenders. And they don’t seem to remember how fast the waterbenders are. 

The scream dies off. You’re still shaking. You clutch Zuko’s arm, and as you lay back down, you don’t even feel embarrassed as you grab his shoulders and cage your arms around him. There’s only one way into the room, and you watch that window with a terrified intensity, until your body slowly succumbs to sleep again.

It’s been a week, to add onto the twenty days of before. Almost a month now in total. Help hasn’t come yet, because it isn’t going to come at all. Maybe it can’t come. That scares you the most, the idea that this mess isn’t just here, but everywhere. 

You need to leave this city and get somewhere safe. You tell Zuko this in the morning.

“Bako’s ship is docked in the east harbor,” you remember. He always talked about it, “We just need a lock mechanism. But those are in armory.”

Asking someone to go to the armory is like asking them to go down to the river for a drink; stupid. And the armory is made of metal, which means any earthbending is useless. A waterbender might stand a chance, but neither you or Zuko are a waterbender.

But you really, really need that lock mechanism. It’s the only way out.

So it’s basically a death mission, but you don’t need to say that staying here is a death wish too. Food won’t be any easier to get. Water is already a danger. And the monsters will just keep growing in numbers. 

That’s how Zuko ends up agreeing with you. You and your not-plan. 

(You let Zuko plan out the rest. You trust him.)

And his plan is great. Except, for one part.

“We’re not going out at night,” you frown. 

“We have to.”

“I.. but why?” you don’t want to sound like you’re wheedling, but you are. 

“The armory will be filled with Fire Nation soldiers,” Zuko explains, not unkindly, but straight to the point, “If we go at night, we’ll actually be able to get out alive.”

He’s right. But you don’t know how to explain that you have a bad feeling about going out at night, and that you know what’s happened to your friends before when they went out, and that you remember what happened to Kai outpost.

It’s a good plan. A great plan. It’s the only plan that might work.

So you nod.

You’ll be leaving tonight. That’s more than enough time to try and come up with a contingency plan, for that sinking feeling in your gut that says something bad will happen. You still can’t remember your nightmare from last night, but it’s a little insistence at the back of your head, and you won’t ignore it. 

Night comes too quickly. 

You and Zuko dress the part. You give him most of the armor, things that guard the arms and neck and vulnerable parts of the flesh. For yourself, you improvise, and wrap earth and rock around sections of your body. If you need to, you can extend them out in only a moment, and block attacks. It’s easier for Zuko to have the real armor.

With a bag each, that’s how you step out into the night, the wind chilly and your face closed. You can hear the firebenders going back to rest. And the waterbenders will be coming out soon, so this is the perfect time to get going. Still, you give the house a single, longing look, before turning away.

Then, you’re both running. 

Zuko leads the way. He knows where the armory is, and he knows a way inside, which is more than you could’ve hoped for. The streets are mostly empty as you both jump gaps and grab onto ledges, and it’s a little weird, that the city looks like it’s just sleeping. Like everyone is still here, and you’re just having another nightmare. If it wasn’t for the blood and ruined houses, that is. Even the palace is looking a little worse for wear, and you haven’t asked Zuko what happened there, because you don’t want to know.

You arrive at the armory too soon. It’s imposing. It’s silent. It’s black steel and red edges, and there’s blood on the doors. You land on the ground quietly, and then you hold up a hand, telling Zuko to hold on, as you glance around, before giving him the clear, and he lands beside you. Suddenly, you’re hit with a strange sense of Deja Vu, one you can’t quite place. So you brush it off. Zuko leads you to a hidden doorway, and with a twist of some unseen lever, it opens, revealing a hallway. 

“This way,” he mouths. You follow him into the darkness, and the door is left open behind you, the metal cold underneath your hands. It smells stale in here. Zuko hesitates for a moment, before lighting his hand with a flame, bathing the area in a warm glow. 

If there are any zombies in here, it’s not like they won’t be able to smell you both.

Every corridor looks the same. You aren’t sure which way you’re going- and you aren’t even sure what a lock mechanism even looks like, if you’re honest. But, eventually, Zuko stops you in front of a door. He points at it. You nod. Then, he begins to open it, and you go on lookout duty. 

The armory has been… eerily quiet, so far.

“Hold on… the door’s jammed.”

Zuko finally prys open the door, and the cold, heavy smell of death slams out, so much that you nearly stumble as you force yourself to turn around and look at the room. Zuko is backed away as your eyes focus.

And then you understand why the armory has been so quiet so far.

Because it looks like everyone is dead. Actually dead. There’s bodies, on the floor, and they aren’t moving at all. They’ve been here a while.

They must’ve been making a last stand here. Maybe they locked themselves inside, to wait for rescue. But rescue never came. And the door was jammed, and so they were stuck, and they died.

You’re not too proud to admit that you nearly throw up. The bile burns your throat, and Zuko doesn’t look much better, but this is the right room. This is where the lock mechanism must be. So you both force yourselves to step forward, into the room, and under that scent of death is that same sick sweetness that makes you want to throw up all over again.

Is this what it’s like everywhere? In the Earth Kingdom, and the Water Tribes- you don’t think you’ll be able to take it if this is how life is now. If everyone is just hiding in little holes, waiting to die.

Surviving, not living.

But you should’ve been paying more attention to Zuko. You- you just took your attention away for two seconds. Not even that. And you refocus your eyes, as he reaches to grab what must be the lock mechanism, and one of the bodies rises up and lunges-

You panic. You throw your hands out, and stomp your foot so hard the sound reverbs across all the metal, as the rocky armor you formed flies off and slams into the zombie. It’s not enough to kill. It’s just to hold, and subdue, and you’re panicking because the earth makes shackles but the shackles aren’t staying on the ground. It’s fighting you. The metal, and the monster, and Zuko is staring with wide eyes and you aren’t sure how much longer you can hold this, so you slam your fists down. The rocks embed themselves in the steel. And it will hold.

But with those sounds combined, now the whole armory must know you’re here. And the groans rising in the distance only confirm this.

“Zuko-”

And then the zombie breaks free. You turn with a shocked expression. An- an earthebender.

It rushes you. It’s going right for your neck. You won’t be able to dodge in time.

“No!” and then Zuko charges it, and tackles it to the ground like a ragdoll, while he rolls away and jumps back up. He has the lock mechanism in his bag. The warning groans are getting louder. The zombie on the ground is getting up.

“Go!” you shout, and then you’re both sprinting down the corridor. What sounds like a hundred cacophonous footsteps echo from behind you both, and a terrible, horrible sound. Bones cracking and teeth gnashing and groans, hungry sounds, disgusting wet wheezes. You don’t look back. You just keep running, keeping pace with Zuko, and you both make a few desperate attempts to throw bending behind yourselves but it’s not working. His fire doesn’t do much, and you’re desperate but you can’t bend metal.

The outside comes into view. The ravenous horde seems like it’s only a few steps behind you both. You can see, too, a few are outside now, and they notice you both, and this-

And this is just like your nightmare.

The scene flashes before your eyes: death. Screaming. Pain, nothingness, death.

And- and you don’t want it to end like that. It can’t. You’ve both come so far, and you just- you just refuse to die like this.

So you grab Zuko’s hand, and the moment you both step outside, you funnel every feeling of pure desperation, of love and hope and trust and fear and everything, right into your fingertips. Something like electricity passes between you both. And then, your spirits connect. For a split second, nothing more. For just a second, you’re one person, you’re a firebender and an earthbender, a farmer and a prince-

And a moment is all you need.

You extend your free hand, and you can feel Zuko’s firebending, just like he can feel your earthbending, and you pull together in tandem. The ground becomes a pillar of lava. The earth beneath you separates, making a small island in the center of the courtyard, shielded from the sudden liquid flame. Magma, pouring from the rock, and as the waterbenders charge at you both, the magma swallows them whole. There’s still the horde, but before you can move to block them off, Zuko does one better. Together, directed by him, you both make a precise movement, starting down and going up, and a wave of the lava flows behind you both. It swells into the corridor, and for a breath, you can see just how many there are. Easily a hundred, all ravenous, terrifying, gnashing teeth and black eyes. The wave of lava buries them all. In the middle of the courtyard where you stand, the ground’s become a circle of obsidian, the lava burbling around you and glowing fiercely in the darkness. You can see the zombies disappearing beneath the swell. 

The strange, combined bending- the lavabending- disappears as you both drop your hands and exhale. The lava remains, a lazy river, eating through the rock and the metal of the armory, and you don’t even know where to start. You stare at the lava instead. 

Lavabending. That was it, wasn’t it? You should’ve died here. You shouldn’t have survived, but you did, and you did it by connecting spirits- something you didn’t even know could happen. The memory instinct of lavabending seems to slip between your fingers, disappearing, but that doesn’t matter right now. Because… you’re alive. You’ve survived, and you’re alive. 

Alive.

You turn to Zuko. The air is volatile, but the little earth island you’re standing on is safe, for now, for long enough for you to stare at him and for him to stare back. You’re still holding hands. The lava gives his features a gentle, but sharp glow.

Eye to eye. You’re both the same height. He has golden eyes, and his hands are warm, and there’s blood on the side of his face and more than a few bruises on yours, and you’ve never seen someone more amazing than right now. 

You don’t realize you’re both leaning in until your lips brush.

Then you both close your eyes, and in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, in the midst of a miraculous survival, you kiss.

And somehow, that’s the most exhilarating part of all.


End file.
